Claude Marsh made a name for himself as a legendary football coach at Bad Axe and Saginaw high schools in the 1950s and 1960s.
But prior to his accomplished coaching career, the 81-year-old Marsh grew up right here in Oxford.
A new biography, published in July 2003, entitled “The Golden Greek: An Action Biography of Claude J. Marsh” tells the story of Marsh’s journey from Depression-era youth in Oxford to Hall of Fame high school football coach, who gathered “in his wake a family of athletes who remain ‘friends’ for life.”
The book was written by one of Marsh’s former Bad Axe players, Flint resident Richard Lee.
“People say, ‘Why do I want to buy the book? I know Coach Marsh,” Lee said. “And I say, ‘No you don’t. You’ll know him once you read the book.’”
“It started out as a tribute to this great guy that we all love,” Lee explained. “Coach is one of the most well-loved people that we all know. The book is about all the people that he’s helped and all the things that he stands for.”
Of particular interest to local readers is the book’s opening chapter, which tells of Marsh’s early years growing up in a Depression-stricken Oxford.
“Most people didn’t realize they were poor because we were all in the same boat. My dad wouldn’t go on welfare; he was too proud, so we were somewhat destitute,” Marsh, a 1940 Oxford High School graduate, said in the book.
Poverty forced Marsh’s family to move around Oxford quite a bit. – “We moved to another part of town. I guess we didn’t pay the rent again. And that house is still there, a big stone dwelling. . .Then we hurriedly shifted to Pontiac Street, then Park Street, on to North Washington, then above a store in town, then to Oxford Street, and finally to Mechanic Street. We were a moving target. Our friends couldn’t find us, but the landlord had no trouble telling us it was time to move on.”
Considering how important and successful Oxford’s sports teams are today, it might interest readers to know that it wasn’t always that way.
“Oxford was a center of music; the people of the town were much more musically inclined than athletically,” Marsh stated in the book.
Marsh began playing the tuba in the fifth grade, but soon switched to the trombone because “the darn tuba was too heavy to carry.” He continued playing through junior high and high school.
When he started playing football for Oxford High School in the late 1930s (the only freshman to make the varsity team), the band director, K.L. Bovee, and football coach, Red Erickson, worked out a plan so Marsh could do both.
“I dressed in my band uniform, marched down through town, and played a little bit. Then, before the game started, I went into the locker room and changed into my football uniform. After the game. . .I would go back and put on my band uniform and march back to school,” according to the book.
The rest of the book focuses on Marsh’s lengthy coaching career in Bad Axe and Saginaw.
Despite the major differences between the two communities and high schools – Bad Axe, a white community of 3,000 people, and Saginaw, a racially-mixed city of 115,000 people – Marsh enjoyed much success in both places and attracted devoted legions of followers and friends.
Lee said the fact that Marsh could work in Bad Axe for 16 years then “flip over” to Saginaw and “be just as successful is a great tribute to him as both a coach and a person.”
In the book, former Saginaw player Charlie Markey summed up why so many of Marsh’s former players love him and remain in contact with him today – “He was a father figure for many of us on that team. He always talked about the esprit de corps (military togetherness) as being the real mission of playing ball, not whether you won or lost. Being part of the team and giving for the team have been the lessons that have always stayed with me. And obviously, with the kids from Bad Axe.”
“I always told every kid, ‘You don’t play for yourself. You play for your parents, your school, your community. That builds teamwork,” Marsh told this reporter.
“Like Midas, his touch has made many lives golden, inspiring young men to follow in his footsteps as coaches serving youth as he has. The chemistry between those lucky enough to know Coach Claude Marsh and his philosophies in life is a bond that remains unbroken and that time has only strengthened. I count myself among the fortunate to have ended my career playing on the last high school team that Claude Marsh ever cooked. It is still very special,” Markey said.
Year after year, a large number of Marsh’s former Bad Axe and Saginaw players still gather together for a golf outing and dinner with the coach.
To learn more about Coach Marsh and his experiences in Oxford, Bad Axe and Saginaw, copies of “The Golden Greek” will be on sale for $17 each at the Northeast Oakland Historical Museum after Oct. 12.
Marsh will return to Oxford on Sunday, Oct. 12 for the “Annual Oxford High Reunion Banquet” at Oxford Hills. The reunion gathers together OHS graduates from the 1920s on.
The “Golden Greek” will be selling and autographing copies of his biography at the reunion.
Incidentally, in case you’re wondering why Marsh was nicknamed the “Golden Greek,” Lee explained it’s “because he was always tan and people thought of Greeks as always being tan.”
When Marsh turned 50, he became the “Golden Greek.”